Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Shares Bought by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,242 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $1,185,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKH. Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the third quarter valued at $96,374,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 109.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 882,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $53,356,000 after buying an additional 461,894 shares in the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the third quarter valued at $8,260,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 551,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,279,000 after buying an additional 89,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 1,579.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 84,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,953,000 after buying an additional 79,595 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th.

Black Hills Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:BKH opened at $59.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a PE ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.02. Black Hills Co. has a 12-month low of $50.72 and a 12-month high of $65.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a return on equity of 7.82% and a net margin of 12.84%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.676 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.56%. This is an increase from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is 68.88%.

Black Hills Company Profile

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.